To: eagles@flash.usc.edu
Subject: Letter from James Dale
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1993 10:07:12 -0800
From: "Kraig R. Meyer"
You may recall a week or so ago a note about James Dale, who is suing
the Boy Scouts of America. Here is the full text of his letter, along
with the certification that he is asking former scouts to read, sign,
and return to help in his court case.
If you were involved in scouting, please consider sending in this
certification to help out in this important case!
--Kraig
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JAMES DALE
4 Lisa Lane
Port Monmouth, New Jersey 07758
March 3, 1993
Dear Mr. xxxx,
I received your name from Forgotten Scouts. I am writing this letter
because I wanted to share a bit of my Scouting experience with you and
wanted to ask you for your support in my fight to establish the right
of all to participate in he Boy Scouts of America
Scouting was the most important part of my youth. I joined the Cub
Scouts at the age of 8 and then dedicated the next 12 years of my life
to the Scouting program. In 1988, at the age of 17, I attained the
highest honor in Scouting, my Eagle Scout Badge. The next year, I
continued my involvement as an Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 73 of
Monmouth Council in Matawan, New Jersey.
While growing up, Scouting gave me a sense of belonging and focus. As a
Scout, I worked hard, so hard in fact that my local council recognized
that work with numerous honors. I was elected into the Order of the
Arrow and was later honored as the chair of the Vigil Honor Selection
Committee. My local council even thought of me as such a model Scout
that they asked me to speak as the only youth representative at
fundraising events.
All that ended at the age of 19 when I came out as a proud gay man.
When officials at my local BSA council learned that I am gay, they sent
me a letter expelling me. They claimed that I could not meet the
"standards of leadership" set by the BSA simply because I am gay. It
was the Boy Scouts who taught me to be proud -- proud of who I am. How
is it that I am no longer fit to be a leader just because I am proud to
be gay?
Another virtue Scouting taught me was to stand up for what I believe in
-- for what is right. I believe that discrimination is wrong in all of
its manifestations and it has no place in the Boy Scouts of America.
Therefore, I am challenging the anti-gay policy of the Boy Scouts of
America in court. In July 1992, I brought a lawsuit against my local
council and the Boy Scouts of America under a New Jersey statute that
prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The suit
seeks a determination that the anti-gay policy violates the New Jersey
Law Against Discrimination and seeks my reinstatement as an Assistant
Scoutmaster in Monmouth Council.
However, for this I need your support. One of the important factual
questions that will come up at trial is whether the BSA's anti-gay
policy is essentially a secret policy. BSA officials have claimed in
previous lawsuits that excluding homosexuals from Scouting has always
been a widely-known policy of the BSA. This was certainly not my
experience of twelve years. In fact, I didn't know that gays couldn't
be involved in the Boy Scouts of America until I was expelled because
of this policy.
I have enclosed a certification with this letter. Your filling it out
and sending it back to me will be an enormous help in establishing
whether the BSA's anti-gay policy is widely known. By signing and
returning the certification, you will provide the court with a
statement that your experience was the same as mine -- that you
participated in Scouting for many years without knowing that gays were
not eligible for membership in the Scouts. Signing the certification
does not, of course, imply that you are gay. If you know of anyone else
who could make this certification, please feel free to copy and
distribute it.
To properly complete the certification, you will need to fill in the
state and county of your residence, the dates during which you were a
Scout or were involved in Scouting (the years will be sufficient) and
your Scout rank and any positions you may have held in the BSA,
including as an adult leader. Sign it at the end and return it to me in
the enclosed self-addressed envelope.
If you have any questions about the certification such as how it will
be used in the case, or if you would like to have a certification
drafted that more precisely reflects your personal experience in
Scouting, please call my attorneys David Goldman (212-225-2922) or
Elisabeth Ostrow (212-225-2628) collect. Please also contact my
attorneys if when you were involved in Scouting you did know that the
BSA refused membership to gays. We would appreciate knowing more about
your experience such as how you found out about the policy.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for your support
with this case. I know that together, we cannot lose.
Sincerely,
James Dale
---------------------------------- CUT HERE ----------------------------------
EVANS, OSBORNE KREIZMAN
180 White Road
Little Silver, New Jersey 07739
(908) 741-9550
CLEARY, GOTTLIEB, STEEN LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND
& HAMILTON EDUCATION FUND, INC.
One Liberty Plaza 666 Broadway
New York, New York 10006 New York, New York 10012
(212) 225-2000 (212) 995-8585
Attorneys for Plaintiff James Dale
----------------------------------------x
: SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
JAMES DALE, : CHANCERY DIVISION
: MONMOUTH COUNTY
Plaintiff, : Docket No. Mon-C-330-92
:
-against :
:
:
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, and :
MONMOUTH COUNCIL, BOY : CERTIFICATION
SCOUTS OF AMERICA, :
:
Defendants. :
:
----------------------------------------x
STATE OF _______________________________)
)
COUNTY OF ______________________________)
1. I, __________________________ reside in _____________________
County in the State of ___________________________. I make this certification
in support of plaintiff James Dale.
2. I was a registered member of Boy Scouts of America from
___________________________ to _____________________________. In the
Boy Scouts of America, I achieved the rank and positions of
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________ .
3. During the period in which I was a registered member of Boy
Scouts of America, I was familiar with the policies of Boy Scouts of
America. During this period, I was never aware that Boy Scouts of
America had a policy of excluding homosexuals from membership. No one
involved in Scouting ever told me that such a policy existed, nor did I
ever read about such a policy in materials provided to me by Boy Scouts
of America. Nothing that I learned while involved in the Scouting
program suggested to me that homosexuals would not be eligible for
membership in Boy Scouts of America. Further, I never knew it to be
one of the central purposes of Boy Scouts of America or the Scouting
program to exclude homosexuals.
4. I certify that the foregoing statements made by me are true. I am
aware that if any of the foregoing statements made by me are wilfully
false, I am subject to punishment.
__________________________________
Dated: __________________________, 1993